By Laura NessAlthough the lineage is already long and storied among the Mirassou family, each year presents a new opportunity to add a new chapter or two to the book of history. With such a rich heritage to build on, the story, like a grand castle, keeps opening up new doors to secret passageways that lead both forward and back, refining past practices with modern advances in viticulture, while retaining the unmistakable character of traditional winemaking.

To commemorate what Steven Mirassou describes as a 6th generation partnership between America’s oldest winemaking family and the world-class growing region of Livermore, the winery ispleased to release their first vintage of “Lineage,” a classic Bordeaux blend from the estate vineyard.Lineage represents a mission and a promise to spare no effort to handcraft one of the world’s greatwines. The time has now come to taste the promise and be a part of this latest page in the winemakinghistory of Livermore.

Containing five of the finest barrels of the 2007 vintage from the Ghielmetti Vineyard, Lineage is truly classic in that represents the traditional five Bordeaux varieties used in creating the great wines of France that effectively launched a thousand ships in pursuit of perfection in a bottle. This blend is 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot, 3% Malbec and 2% Merlot, with predominantly new French oak. The label echoes its French heritage with a lovely fleur de lis crest.Says Steven of the Lineage effort, “I’m led in the wine business with one aspiration: to create asingle wine from the Livermore Valley that eventually could rank among the world’s best. After yearsof effort, I am very excited to introduce you to a new brand and a new wine: Lineage. Lineage is imbuedwith the elegance and complexity that the best of these blended wines contain. Because of your generoussupport of Steven Kent and La Rochelle, I would like to extend a personal invitation to you to joinme in this new venture.” Only 780 bottles of Lineage will be released in the first offering, so the only way to guarantee an allocation is to become a Lineage Collector.

Such privilege entitles you to the following:• 6-bottle allocation of each vintage of Lineage• Exclusive consideration for large format bottles of Lineage• Invitations to our Annual Lineage Tasting• Exclusive invitations to Lineage Collector eventsCelebrate the arrival of Lineage this coming Sunday, October 17th, from 12 to 3pm on the Steven Kent patio. $25 general public, $20 Steven Kent and La Rochelle club members. Includes a Lineage logo glass to keep, and a taste of 2008 Lineage and each of the 2009 components.